Florida officials have ordered an oil-drilling company to halt its illegal fracking-like operations near the Everglades, raising the ire of area citizens already concerned about the harm of energy exploration to humans and the region’s delicate ecosystem.

Early this month, the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection ordered the Dan A. Hughes Company to stop all drilling
in five exploratory wells in Collier County, near the western
area of the Everglades, until further notice. In addition, US
Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida has called on federal officials to
investigate.

One month prior to the order, the state had cited the Texas
company for extra-legal operations, levying the maximum civil
penalties under Florida law. The $25,000 fine was assessed for an
"enhanced extraction procedure” similar to hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking, without a permit.

The state has also demanded independent reviews of the company’s
fracking-like practices and the groundwater near the drilling
sites, which could last until December, according to the Sun Sentinel.

The fracking process entails blasting fissures in rocks thousands
of meters under the earth with water and sand to release trapped
deposits of oil and gas. Injection wells used to dispose of
highly-toxic fracking wastewater have contributed to heightened
earthquakeactivity across the nation. The wastewater -
riddled with hazardous and often undisclosed chemicals and contaminants - has
been linked to a host of human and environmental health concerns.

The previously-unknown drilling in the fragile Everglades area
has mobilized the local community, the Sentinel reported.

"This is our watershed," said Vickie Machado, of
Florida’s Food & Water Watch, a public safety group.
"They are using millions of gallons of clean water, mixing it
with chemicals with known carcinogens, and pumping it underground
to break up the protected rock formations out there. The
potential is pretty scary."

The method employed by the Hughes Co. was initially questioned by
state environmental-protection officials concerned about the
procedure’s risks. The state told the company last year to
refrain from advancing their drilling projects, but Hughes Co.
went forward anyway.

Their method is considered “fracking-like” because the
company injects dissolving acids into the ground to unearth oil
reserves rather than the usual fracking chemicals. It also says
it uses a “modest volume” of water and sand in the
process.

Hughes Co. spokesman David Blackmon said the company is
"confident the results are going to show that the groundwater
hasn't been negatively impacted" and that its drilling
projects will not contaminate any area drinking water.

"The way these wells are constructed, there are multiple
layers — five layers of concrete and heavy steel — that prevent
any of the fluids going through the well bore from contacting the
groundwater formation," Blackmon said.

Opponents of drilling in the Everglades, long concerned that
water contamination and damage to the Everglades is inevitable
with such operations in the area, do not see this fracking-like
process as so innocent.

"It doesn't reassure many people that they are pumping acid
into the ground under high pressure to break up rock and draw out
more oil," said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the
South Florida Wildlands Association. "Those liquids could
move around laterally, but also up and down and into the drinking
water supply."

Energy companies have extracted small amounts of oil around the
western Everglades since the 1940s. Yet new drilling techniques
in recent years have lured new players into the region to tap
into an estimated 702 million barrels of oil or natural gas in a
strip of deposits within the Sunniland Trend, which spans from
the state’s west coast to Broward and Miami-Dade counties in the
east, according to the US Geological Survey.

The Hughes Co. is operating a few miles from the Corkscrew Swamp
Sanctuary, a home for an array of plant and wildlife. The company
is also drilling near the Florida Panther National Wildlife
Refuge; it has asked the federal government for permission to
store toxic wastewater from drilling near the site, a proposal
strongly opposed by Naples residents and Everglades protectors.

Hughes Co. is drilling on private farm land in Collier County
that was leased to several oil companies for energy exploration.

Experts say the risks inherent in drilling around the Everglades
have alarmed larger companies afraid of possible fallout.

"I don't think there's enough oil there for the major
companies to take the risk — the political risk, the image risk,
the reputation risk — of drilling in the Everglades," said
Jorge Pinon, an oil industry analyst at the University of Texas.
"But you are going to see some of the independent companies
taking that risk."